With recent progress in microfabrication technology in the semiconductor industry, there have been used analytical instruments that use a microchip in which elements necessary for chemical analysis, including channels, reactors and electrodes for sensing, are integrated on a substrate made such as of silicon or glass. Electrophoresis systems using a microchip for DNA analysis or protein analysis have been already developed and are commercially available. An analysis device using such a microchip (a microanalysis system, a μ-Total Analysis System; μ-TAS) realizes integration of chemical analysis experiments, high throughput, resource saving, space saving and low emission. At the moment, various types of microchips are being developed in the world. Concrete examples of various types of microchips being developed include separation microchips mainly for biochemical analysis and also for electrophoresis and chromatography, assay microchips for immunoassay and enzyme analysis, and microchips for synthetic reaction on which polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is performed. These microchips are easily portable. Therefore, it has been expected that the microchips can be used to make an environmental analysis at sampling site or make a high-accuracy clinical test at bed side.
Patent Document 1 discloses the following device as a measuring device using such a microchip. Specifically, the device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a device for optically measuring a specific binding substance in a fluid sample and includes a reaction part on at least one surface of which immobilized are first specific binding members each of which can form the specific binding substance by binding specifically to a test substance bound to a second specific binding member to which a fluorescent label or a light-scattering label is bound. Furthermore, a transparent base-material layer is laid through a first space layer on one surface of a transparent waveguide having a light-emission end face and a light absorption layer is laid through a second space layer on the other surface thereof. The first and second space layers are mutually communicated layers for loading a fluid sample therethrough. In this case, the refractive index of the waveguide is set larger than that of the fluid sample.
Patent Document 2 discloses the following on-chip bioassay method as a method capable of simultaneously making a plurality of measurements. In this technique, a microfluid chip for cell introduction is fixed to the under surface of a chip having numerous pores made of a substrate through which a plurality of pores arrayed in a grid are passed, whereby a plurality of microchannels for cell introduction are formed between the chip having numerous pores and the microfluid chip for cell introduction. First, suspended cells are loaded through the microchannels into the pores in the chip having numerous pores. Next, a microfluid chip for test substance introduction is fixed to the top surface of the chip having numerous pores to cross its plurality of microchannels for test substance introduction and the plurality of microchannels for cell introduction, whereby a plurality of microchannels for test substance introduction are formed between the chip having numerous pores and the microfluid chip for test substance introduction. Then, a test substance is loaded through the above microchannels into contact with the cells in the pores in the chip having numerous pores, and the degree of influence of the test substance on the cells is detected in situ after a definite time or at definite time intervals.    Patent Document 1: Published Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-140682    Patent Document 2: Published Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-46121